A is for Alpha Phi

A is for Alpha Phi

The "Phi-House"

I don't normally talk a lot about my college days (unless it starts "So this one afternoon we were drinking on the beach and thought it would be a good idea to...", and sometimes people are surprised to find out that I was in a sorority in college. Of course, I wasn't just IN a sorority, I was voted "Alpha Phi for life" my senior year (along with Chapter Chatterbox and Best Drunken Rage Performance, but I don't need to go into that here).

I was both Vice President of Programming and Chapter President, and I won Sorority President of the Year at the university-wide Greek Awards my senior year. I know that's a lot of bragging but hey, it's something I'm pretty proud of. I was determined to make that house better and I like to think I did a pretty good job of it.

Probably one of the best compliments I've ever gotten in my life was at Alumni weekend. A bunch of the girls who were Sophmores when I graduated came up to me and were introducing the younger girls to me and they all knew who I was. One of the Sophmores (a few glasses of wine down) and a current VP, said to me "Every time we would be sitting in Exec. Board trying to figure out a problem, we would always say 'What would Delia do?' Then we would realize 'Wait! If Delia was here, we wouldn't even HAVE this problem!'". That compliment has always stayed with me.

4 years of Chapter Presidents at Alumni Weekend 2004

And I know there has got to be somebody out there reading this, rolling their eyes thinking 'I hated those sororiy girls in school who just paid for friends and popularity', and to you I have to say this: So what if I did? I wasn't in it for frat guys and kegs of beer. Those girls made college the best 4 years of my life to date. Being the sorority turned me into my current line of work and I LOVE it. I met my roommate + close friends in San Jose, 400 miles away, because of my association with the group. There are sorority women and sorority girls, and I am proud to say I was the former in a wonderful organization called Alpha Phi.

My only regret is not learning how to knit sooner. That would have made Monday night chapter meetings go by MUCH quicker!

Down with USC

Sorry to any SC fans out there but....


HELL YEAH TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DOWN WITH USC!!!!!!!!!!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

The Anti-Resolution

Ok, so I didn't exactly "clean my sticks for 2006" (a la Lisa), but look at my sidebar -->

I spent the last couple days doing a glorious amount of NOTHING except laying on my [new!] couch and finishing up everything in my 'needs finishing' box. That included two socks (be it for different pairs, but anyways...), sewing in Lelah's elastic band, and seaming + end weaving for both pairs of mitts and the Cashsoft Shrug. I also finished up 2 scarfs (and almost a 3rd, the damn mock-lace scarf that is now over a year old) that were pointlessly hanging around, and just need to block them. I may or may not end up photographing these items. I'm just saying.

Anyway, I did start ONE new project (so much for THAT New Year's Resolution). That damn Ticker Tape was screaming "knit me into a bottom-up sweater NOW!", so I obeyed and now have an arm, a front, and 1/2 a back. And the thing weighs like 8 ounces. Hense the name "Light as Air", for our "Hot as Hell" winter in California. I'm sure you have been reading about all the crazy rainstorms/tornados/flooding in this little state of ours, but I would just like to add that I spent the New Years Holiday at 5500 feet and still had NO SNOW. Lots of rain, but not 1 snowball! I felt like a fool for lugging my big 'ol boots and snowpants up there.

[returning to the topic....]

So knitting. Instead of making a resolution along the lines of "finish this before starting that" (because the last time I tried to assert that, I realized what a FOOL I sounded like) , my resolution is to knit what I want, when I want, without apologizing or rationalizing why. It's the anti-resolution.

So here is what I am gearing up for in 2006

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PS - Remember "It's Raining Babies"?

Arden

Born December 28, 2005. 6lb 7 oz

That's 100% Armenian right there. A baby, who's skin has never seen the sun, who is tanner than me. Awesome.

Crumpets is in her future.